Long Live the Queen (Book 5 of The Powder Trail)

Chapter Five: Couples' Codes

He had been prepared for dragons, but not for Alice.

She leaned down from her seat at the base of the dragon's neck – black-clad and imperious, with streams of hair fluttering at her shoulders like gilded banners – and said, "I should let them eat you."

Jack looked up at the dragons. If they had been inclined to eat him, he wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. They towered above him like a sheer, silver wall. They were thin and whiskered, like the sort of dragons you saw painted on Chinese porcelain, but they could still have crushed him, or disembowelled him with a swipe of those claws.

But he couldn't seem to muster the fear that a pair of dragons should have inspired in him. There was such a feeling of rightness to this moment. He was still chuckling from the message in the sand, still reeling from his spectacular escape. He felt loved – connected – stitched into a warm tapestry of friends and family that even included Alice Darwin.

Besides, they weren't exhibiting any behaviour he would have classed as hostile. The riderless dragon was nudging the axe along the sand with its nose, as though entranced by the bright light. And Alice's dragon had found the severed tentacle and was chewing on it thoughtfully.

Even Alice didn't seem too interested in taunting him. She was looking at the writing in the sand with a vague, tense frown. She hadn't been expecting it.

In fact, now that he'd got past her terrifying silhouette and monstrous, silvery steed, he could see that she looked rattled. Her hair was loose and unkempt. Her chest was rising and falling in a very noticeable way.

She'd been splashed when the dragons had dipped into the water to retrieve him. Little droplets were spangling her neck like jet beads. Would the lake call to her now? It was difficult to imagine despair operating on a will like Alice's. But it was not nothing, what he had just seen. He would never underestimate it. Somehow, Ellini's message had brought him to an odd, contradictory state in which he recognized the power of despair and yet couldn't imagine despairing ever again.

He couldn't stop smiling either. He knew it would antagonize Alice, but he just couldn't stop.

"Did Ellini send you?" he asked, without thinking.

Alice narrowed her eyes. "I am not at Miss Syal's beck and call."

She threw a glance at James Darwin, who had been edging into view. It was her usual haughty look, but Jack swore there was a wince buried in there somewhere.

"Ah," said Darwin, on being noticed. "Hello, old girl. I did get here, as you see, but it might have... taken longer than expected."

Most unusually, Alice didn't fry him into silence with her glare. She looked away and said, "Well."

Just 'well'. Perhaps it was a couple's code – but whether it meant 'sorry', or 'I've missed you', or 'We'll talk about this later', Jack couldn't guess. Darwin was looking pale and apprehensive, but that wasn't much of a clue.

"How did you find us?" Jack prompted.

Alice stuck her nose in the air. "The dragons seemed to know where they were going."

This was as close as she could come to admitting she hadn't been in control. It probably meant the dragons had gone haring off with Alice clinging to their scales for dear life.

"Did you tell them to rescue me?" said Jack, smiling at the idea.

"I wouldn't lift a finger to save you! Do you think I've forgotten the insults you paid me-?" She suddenly lurched forwards as her dragon's head dipped. It was snapping its jaws at another tentacle, close to Jack's boot.